monetising

So I decided I would open an adsense account for this blog and see what happened. A few thoughts were had over this. But the bottom line is I get ads all the time when I read things online (eg newspapers I subscribe to, magazines ditto) and while I don't love it, nor do I despise it. The other things is that while I don't expect to make any big $$ - I'm sure if anything it'll be a pittance - I was intrigued when I saw that, when I was in Finland two months ago, my Finnish readership really picked up. Not people reading about Finnish things but surely people in Finland being recommended things by the algorithm because I was nearby. Well, maybe the algorithm will be inspired by $$ to push my product more widely. In the unlikely event I make any money I will give it to charity (probably international wildlife fund) but writers need to be read and I want eyes on my little pearls of wisdom. You understand that, don't you?* 

Now, here's the first of a few pictures from our Sydney/Woy Woy trip on the weekend. 

*OK so I now see what it looks like and I don't necessarily like it very much. I'll give it a couple of weeks just as an experiment but at first glance I feel I am demeaning us all. 

sydney trip (three days ago)

The main reason I left Sydney (in '95) is that I saw it changing, and felt it becoming immensely unaffordable, and now, while I still recall some of the key features on a very essential level (ouch, that morning sun) I can barely find my way around - at least not from looking at landmarks.

More insanely I'm wandering around here between Balmain and Pyrmont trying to get my usual public transport app to help me out and it seems to be predicting incredibly long times for short (much of it over water, so not a traffic thing) distances. Sometimes it decided to refine these radically, but in the main I wasn't keeping records of what it was telling me, so I don't really know what was going on. I know I am basically in the right place now and hopefully in two hours will have discharged my duties re: conference paper and I can move on to the next thing.

short memory lane

I had an hour of me time in Newtown etc this morning so I tried to remember some places I once knew better. For instance I have lived in both of these houses (unless it was the white one and the one to its right, but I don't think so):I have also lived here in the white house (no fond memories of this abode though I did get to meet my wonderful friend Fiona by dint of her living next door in the pink house):

and here (as I was taking this picture a man went past telling me that there were plenty of nicer spots for tourists to photograph).

I recall this mural when in its better days,

and this one too.

This is not a mural, I know. It is however new to me and I loved it: